ANNUAL REPORT

Fukushima to Vancouver 2015

Global Learning Consortium

Reconciling with Creation, Neighbours and Nations

Global Learning Consortium December 2015

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Executive Summary

For Vancouver. Because Local Church is a Global Community.

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Fukushima to Vancouver 2015 was only possible

because of the many partnerships God

orchestrated in many places globally – Vancouver,

Fukushima, Tokyo, Wonsan, Seoul and beyond.

70 years after the end of WWII, Vancouver, once a

racially divided, small, insignificant port city of

Western Canada, has become a leading global

urban centre of ecological sustainability. What

happens in Vancouver can have significant ripple

effect, though we have no control over it.

Global Learning Consortium was founded by

friends committed not simply to see an art exhibit

brought for Vancouver’s sophisticated audience,

but to witness the power of the gospel reconciling

all areas of God’s creation in Fukushima, in

Vancouver and beyond. Through Fukushima and

North Korean Art Exhibits and the supporting

events, we believe that our desire to provide

holistic, innovative local-church based learning

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was accomplished as you see in the stories presented

in this report. These are not just one time events, but

a small step toward long term commitment and

action to build networks among local churches in the

Pacific Northern Rim nations, the nations facing

common challenges triggered by the Fukushima

disaster and uncertainties of North Korea’s future.

This year we created a motto for everything we strive

to do: Local church is a global community. We believe

Vancouver is the ideal lab to prove this reality

because it is a city of many nations.

GLC presents to you this first annual report of our

little participation in God’s work of reconciling all

things. We are grateful to faithful friends like you for

prayers, emotional support, financial gifts, wisdom

and many other signs showing the God’s Kingdom

grows by miracles when we participate together.

For Fukushima,

Table of Contents

page 2 Executive Summary

page 3 A Year in Review

page 4 Project Brief

page 5 Feedback

page 6 Prayer Partners

page 6 Financial Review

page 7 Vancouver to Fukushima 2016

page 7 Credits and Acknowledgements

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A Year in

Review

We started with prayers and ended with thanksgiving.

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Birth of an Organization?

In December 2014, Global Learning Consortium (GLC) did not

exist officially but only in the minds of a few friends who were

praying together to bring Fukushima to Vancouver 2015 in the

most effective way. In January 2015, 8 weeks into the 33 week

long prayer campaign since mid November 2014, GLC was

incorporated as nonprofit society in British Columbia to fulfill its

call to proving an effective platform for partnerships for the

project.

33 Week Prayer Campaign (Nov 2014 – Jun 2015)

Fukushima to Vancouver 2015 is not just another good cause,

another well-meaning project for disaster victims halfway around

the world by bringing an art exhibit. Fukushima’s triple disaster

(earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown) on March 11, 2011

has left hundreds of thousands internally displaced and it still

poses environmental, social and political risks globally. Facing

the Pacific Ocean with Fukushima, Vancouver, a global urban

leader in ecological sustainability, has had a shameful past of

interning Japanese Canadians during and after WWII (1942-

1949). This forgotten history juxtaposes many of the complex

issues of the ongoing Fukushima crises. To remember and stand

with the people of Fukushima, Vancouver’s small segment of

population called local church came together to pray for peace and

reconciliation in the Pacific Northern Rim nations in conjunction

with the art exhibits and supporting events.

Timely visit to Fukushima in March 2015

GLC Board members, Soohwan Park and Shihoko Warren (priest

of Church of All Nations) and her husband Ken Warren, visited

Fukushima to listen to and encourage local churches. (See the

detailed story of their visit in

www.churchforvancouver.ca on

April 9, 2015, the photo taken at

Nakoso Christ Church in

Fukushima). We knew then the

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art exhibits and events would only be meaningful as long as we put the

faces of these people first in all we did.

Why Wonsan, North Korea with Fukushima?

The challenges in reconciliation among nations on the Pacific Rim are

multi-faceted and it is unwise to single out one disaster from the rest.

2011 marked the year of the Fukushima disaster and the leadership

change in North Korea. Vancouver is Canada’s gateway to Asia, and

its present multicultural dynamics and revitalizing churches are some

of the clear signs of hope for Vancouver to be a birthing place of peace

and reconciliation in the Pacific Rim. While preparing for the

Fukushima exhibit, God led us one step to another to discover the rich

history of Canadian overseas missions to North Korea in the late 19th

and early 20th centuries. Wonsan city was the home for the first

Canadian missionaries and the birthplace of an early Korean church

revival in 1904 through Robert Hardie, Canadian medical missionary’s

repentance (See www.churchforvancouver.ca on May 28, 2015). This

was an important story, forgotten among Canadian churches, and

needs re-telling time and again. We did not know GLC would be

blessed with a rare opportunity of showing North Korean Art and

Fukushima Art exhibits in Vancouver.

Thank you, the Church of Vancouver!

Much of our prayer campaign effort was actually about moving the

mountains! (seriously): bringing the art shipment from Japan, getting

the formal recognition by Canadian government (a true miracle!), etc.

The Fukushima art exhibit opened the 8 week local church prayer

campaign in May and the supporting events filled most of June. When

the North Korean Art exhibit closed in late July, we were

overwhelmed with joy and thanksgiving, as we marveled at how God

met every detail and at the loving support and prayers shown by the

Church of Vancouver.

As the new year approaches, we are now preparing

Vancouver to Fukushima 2016 as a follow-up. Once

again, we are ready to be surprised by God’s

reconciling work in the Pacific Rim this coming year.

Behind the Scene Story…

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Reconciling With Creation, Neighbours and Nations

Against environmental disaster

Uncertainty of Fukushima nuclear crises

continues at the Daiichi Nuclear Plant on top

of soil and water contamination caused by

radiation for the past 4 years. Art used in

nuclear protest messages often depicts anger

and fear, but the Fukushima art exhibit (May

7- June 25) depicted not only the pain and

suffering of the disaster but also the hope and

reconciliation that can only come from God.

To raise awareness of the multifaceted issues

of the Fukushima crises by empowering the

local churches through prayers, GLC

devoted a large portion of our endeavor and

resources to developing powerful

communication tools such as a website and

print materials to aid the prayer campaign.

We are grateful for the local churches in

Vancouver and those whom we don’t even

know that prayed with us for Fukushima.

Project Brief

Against socio-cultural disaster

Soul Sustainability: Urban Renewal Through Art

(June 11-13, 2015) was a social and

educational experiment in the active role of

art in neighbourhood transformation. In this

experiment we saw how artistic imagination

and creativity generate inspiration for hope

and beauty, and work toward reconciliation

and resilience. The tragic history of Japanese

internment (1942-1949), and the continued

histories of brokenness and marginalization

in the east side of Vancouver, made a unique

impact on the visiting Japanese artists

especially after their collaboration on the

Fukushima art exhibit. Participants

expressed strongly positive feelings in this

new venture and newly established

friendships between two marginalized

neighbourhoods across the Pacific Ocean:

Vancouver’s eastside and Fukushima, Japan.

Against political disaster

The Fukushima nuclear disaster exposed the

fragility and connectedness of nuclear power

among surrounding nations. This often

reflects failed leadership in the democratic

collective decision making processes. Such

political disaster always touches a deeper

level of spiritual roots: fear and confusion.

Our task as Christians is to pray and to

defuse tension caused by fears and

uncertainty.

Along with the North Korean Art exhibit at

Regent College library featuring art from

Wonsan, North Korea (May 28 – July 24),

GLC hosted two learning events for public

and for local churches: first, a public lecture

on North Korean Philatelic art (June 19) and

second, a one day conference, Global

Church and Reconciled Korea (June 20).

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Hope, resilience, sustainability.

Feedback from patrons and participants

Comments at the Art Exhibit:

“Very moving… Helps me to look at the suffering of people of Fukushima with Jesus’ compassionate eyes.”

“Thank you for sharing the pain and the beauty.”

“Very thought provoking art, reflecting hope amidst despair.”

Testimony at the Soul Sustainability Retreat:

“ I did not know that there was Japan Town in Vancouver before WWII. It was good to learn about that history,” one of the visiting Japanese participants expressed. “Recovery of relationship is necessary to these people. Communities like this can recover hope when people work together for the betterment of their own community, like cleaning streets, growing vegetables or baking bread, repairing old homes together, etc. A country like Japan emphasizes “uniformity,” but from this retreat experience, I am inspired to create a model of community that allows diverse people come

“Our mission is to plant ourselves at the gates of Hope — not

the prudent gates of Optimism, which are somewhat narrower;

nor the stalwart, boring gates of Common Sense; nor the strident

gates of Self-Righteousness, which creak on shrill and angry

hinges (people cannot hear us there; they cannot pass through);

nor the cheerful, flimsy garden gate of “Everything is gonna be

all right.” But a different, sometimes lonely place, the place of

truth-telling, about your own soul first of all and its condition,

the place of resistance and defiance, the piece of ground from

which you see the world both as it is and as it could be, as it will

be; the place from which you glimpse not only struggle, but joy

in the struggle. And we stand there, beckoning and calling,

telling people what we are seeing, asking people what they see."

Victoria Safford, “The Small Work in the Great Work” in The Impossible

Will Take a Little While: Perseverance and Hope in Troubled Times

together in harmony, such as multi-racial congregation as I see in Vancouver. (When I get back to Japan) I would like to encourage churches in a community to come together and do simple ONE thing together (like bell ringing we experienced at the United Church).”

Prayers at Global Church and Reconciled Korea conference:

“Dear Lord, may our Korean brothers and sisters be reminded that they are a chosen people – a people of God’s own – so that they may proclaim the virtues of the one who called them out of darkness into your marvelous light.”

“I pray the Spirit of the Living God will permeate the hearts of North Koreans. I pray that we’ll see Kim Jong-Un in heaven.”

“Father God, help us love you more, and know you more, so our eyes will focus on those whom your eyes focus on. Help us be patient and be faithful and be ready when you call us.”

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Prayer Partners

11 Local churches in

Metro- Vancouver

Made a formal commitment to congregational prayers for 8 weeks during the art exhibits and events in Vancouver. They are listed below from westernmost to easternmost location:

• University Hill Congregation (United Church on UBC Campus)

• West Point Grey Baptist Church

• First Baptist Church (Downtown Vancouver)

• Church of All Nations (Japanese, multi-cultural congregation of Anglican Network in Canada)

• Church of Good Shepherd (Fairview neighborhood, Vancouver)

• Mosaic Church (Strathcona neighbourhood, Vancouver)

• First Christian Reformed Church (Vancouver east side)

• Vancouver Japanese Gospel Church (New Westminster)

• Burnaby Yul-bang Presbyterian Church (Korean speaking)

• Surrey Korean Presbyterian Church

• Church of the Ascension (Langley, Anglican Network in Canada)

There are other churches that were engaged in informal support, such as:

• Marineview Chapel with a children’s day camp focused on Fukushima.

Financial Review

Other Gifts & Partnerships

Website for Publicity and Prayer Campaign

• Regent College Lookout Gallery and library for hosting the exhibits. • Incarnation Ministries as the umbrella organization for donation receipts. • Canada Border Service Agency for granting their recognition of International Exhibit. • Church for Vancouver (www.churchforvancouver.ca) for publicity. • Strathcona Church for providing the venue for Soul Sustainability Retreat. • Over 100 hours of time donations by various professionals in arts, legal, admin, design,

website, etc. and numerous hours of work by volunteers. • Phil Schafran, Susan Ritchie and Trevor Todd for loaning their North Korean paintings. • Friends with the Voiceless International (www.karashi.net) and Seibou Christ Church in

Japan for their generous contribution toward shipping costs in Japan.

www.art4fukushima.com was accessed from 1124 cities in 97 countries from the start of the 33 week prayer campaign on November 13, 2014 until the end of North Korean Art exhibit on July 24, 2015.

Description $ (CAD) Revenue

Donations 16820.00

Registration Fees - Conference & Events 1438.00

Other Fundraising Income 843.00

Interest Income 1.45

Total Revenue: 19102.45

Expenses

Administrative Expenses 1165.80

Communications - tel, postage 47.38

Entertainment & Meals – volunteers, donors, etc 142.10

Event Logistics - venue & food 2550.98

Fees & Subscriptions 194.45

Hospitality & Gifts 333.69

Packing & Shipping (artworks) 1935.48

Printing, website & publicity 6489.73

Other Fundraising expenses 245.00

Speaker & Facilitator Honorarium 3307.50

Speaker Travel expenses 1565.60

Stationery 203.68

Travel expenses 439.42

Total Expenses: 18626.09

Net Income Gain (Loss) 481.64

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Credits & Acknowledgements

Vancouver to Fukushima 2016

Friendship formed in Vancouver goes to Fukushima.

March 2016 will be 5th year since the triple disaster. The

Japanese artists who visited Vancouver will host an

International Artists Residence in Fukushima in March.

The artists from Vancouver and Fukushima will gather

and walk the coastal lines of Fukushima’s Pacific Ocean to lament and to imagine God’s

redemptive work through their creative work. This journey is a follow-up after Soul

Sustainability in Vancouver downtown eastside in June 2015 (photo on the left).

Continue to build bridges between Wonsan and Vancouver.

One of the blessings of being the Church in Vancouver is its multicultural faith communities

coming together for reconciliation and ministry toward the Korean peninsula. There have

been requests to equip younger generation immigrant churches in metro-Vancouver. GLC

will continue to develop resources for educating local churches on reconciliation based on

biblical foundations in Pacific Rim nations. These local partnerships will continue in metro-

Vancouver to strengthen relationships and knowledge base on North Korea.

Credits:

• Photography: Steve Pavey, Jenna Veenbaas, Petra Anderson, Soohwan Park

• Front cover: In the City 1 by Miran Rin (top-right), Street view of Wonsan City by unknown artist (bottom-left), In His Eyes by Toshiyuki Machida and Yoshiya Miwa (Bottom-right).

• Back cover: Group painting of Fukushima map by children of Marineview Chapel (top-left) and painting of Vancouver downtown eastside by Tatsuo Inoue ((bottom-right)

It was a small drop, but a ripple effect continues. GLC will continue to take one small step at a time to follow up carefully what has been created through collective prayers in

Vancouver this year. Your prayers and continued support enable us to create more partnerships and innovative learning in 2016.

Acknowledgements:

• Ali Cumming and Regent College Lookout Gallery and Library staff for their dedicated service to host the two exhibits.

• Steve Frost and Jenna Veenbaas for preparing and hosting the Soul Sustainability Retreat. Debra Sparrow, Jamie Hellewell, Jenna Veenbaas, Paul Kariya, Sora and Yuri for facilitating and speaking at various sessions at the retreat.

• Pat, Jenny and other residents of DTES who welcomed us and shared their stories.

• Mark Rossetto and Claudia Merida, Bob and Suzanne Taylor, Jo, Derek and JJ White, Ken and Stella Ting, and L’Arche Vancouver community for hosting the visiting Japanese artists. Church of All Nations for hosting the farewell dinner.

• Joanna Roberts (website), Emily Min (art conservation), Enoch Chang of Mogan Daniels Slager LLP (legal advice), Rosi Petkova and Steve Frost (print material design) for their respective areas of professional service.

• Jenna Veenbaas, Jeong-Ha Kim, Elisha Kim, Young-Tai Choi, David Paul, and other volunteers at various times during the events.

Annual Report 2015

Thank you!

Global Learning Consortium

105- 2935 Spruce Street Vancouver, BC, Canada V6H 3N6

www.glc-vancouver.com info@glc-vancouver.com (All content © 2015 Global Learning Consortium)

Farewell dinner with Japanese artists and host families (June 14)